Monthly Archives: April 2016

First Grade finally finished up their Op Art illusions this past week. I was incredibly proud of how neatly the class colored in their drawings. They took their time and worked on each tiny section until it was neatly filled in. The illusions look amazing thanks to that hard work!

Our next topic was Splatter Painting. Any time that splatter paintings are mentioned, Jackson Pollock’s name is not far behind. First Grade was really intrigued by his paintings and how he came up with the names for them. They all offered their own suggestions about what they would have named the piece had it been their own creation. Lucky for them, they were about to make TWO Pollock paintings! We started small, with gentle flicks of the paintbrush and simple dripping methods in the classroom. The small paintings were then named by their artists and shared with the class. Next, we went on to a much larger scale. I took the class outside and let them really cut loose with their splatters. Even though we all ended up looking like we’d run through a paint sprinkler, it was a lot of fun, and the paintings came out marvelously. Next week, we’ll be naming them and putting them up for display.

After completing the Pop Art batman drawings and the Op Art illusions, Kindergarten moved on to their next art movement: Cubism. Picasso was one of the most famous Cubist painters, so we used his imagery as inspiration, though I’m pretty sure he never painted a puppy. Kindergarten, however, was more than excited to have a pup as their subject matter. We started out by drawing the image together in pencil, and then tracing it with a black marker. Right now, we’re in the process of coloring the drawing with warm colors for the puppy and cool colors for the background. They should be done by the end of next week, and up on the wall for everyone to see!

PreK has been working very hard on two very different projects for these past few weeks. The first was a drawing of Mona Lisa. Not only was it good drawing practice, but it also made for good conversation. The little artists enjoyed guessing what Mona Lisa was smiling about. I think the end conclusion was that she was smiling because “Smiling makes people happy.”

We also looked at the art of Alexander Calder, a sculptor who is known for his mobiles. Since mobiles tend to get tangled up a lot and can become overly complicated, we did normal sculptures instead that still had elements of his work. Using bright colors and a variety of shapes, we cut out 12 foam shapes that were then put onto three pipe cleaners. The base of the sculpture was a piece of cardboard that each student got to paint in his or her choice of color. Finally, we stuck the ends of the pipe cleaners into the cardboard to make them stand up like little bridges across the base. The end result was something resembling a tiny, colorful jungle gym that could go home with them!

Like the Pre-Preppers, the Prepper class got to read TheVery Hungry Caterpillar book and do an activity based on its story. We started by tracing cups to make the circles for the caterpillar’s body. These were then colored in. Next, our hungry caterpillar needed some food, so everyone got to paint 5 fruits to cut out and glue onto the paper with the caterpillar. They came out adorably! The kids were very excited to take them home. Our next project was in honor of Earth Day! In celebration of our beautiful world, and the many ways we can work to protect it, the Preppers made paper gardens out of old magazine pages. They got to cut out any flowers that they liked and then glue them to a sheet of paper to make a fantastic collage (and they helped keep those magazines from going into the trash, too!). Now, the beautiful gardens are up in the hallway now for everyone to enjoy.

Recently, the Pre-Prepper class has been working on a few spring themed activities. We started with TheVery Hungry Caterpillar book and used it as inspiration for our own little caterpillars. Those projects got to go home as soon as they were finished. Afterwards, we worked on making pretty spring trees. I gave each of my little friends a blue paper with a tree branch drawn on it, and they got to glue little tissue paper pieces to the branches to make the flowers for the tree. These will be going up in the hallway next week.